Dictionary-Definition.com :: Thorn definition

Definition of 'thorn'

noun

Something that causes irritation and annoyance; "he's a thorn in my flesh" [syn: irritant, thorn]

noun

A small sharp-pointed tip resembling a spike on a stem or leaf [syn: spine, thorn, prickle, pricker, sticker, spikelet]

noun

A Germanic character of runic origin

From: GCIDE

Thorn \Thorn\, v. t. To prick, as with a thorn. [Poetic] [1913 Webster]
I am the only rose of all the stock That never thorn'd him. --Tennyson. [1913 Webster]

From: GCIDE

Thorn \Thorn\, n. [AS. [thorn]orn; akin to OS. & OFries. thorn, D. doorn, G. dorn, Dan. torn, Sw. t["o]rne, Icel. [thorn]orn, Goth. [thorn]a['u]rnus; cf. Pol. tarn, Russ. tern' the blackthorn, ternie thorns, Skr. t[.r][.n]a grass, blade of grass. [root]53.]
1. A hard and sharp-pointed projection from a woody stem; usually, a branch so transformed; a spine. [1913 Webster]
2. (Bot.) Any shrub or small tree which bears thorns; especially, any species of the genus Crataegus, as the hawthorn, whitethorn, cockspur thorn. [1913 Webster]
3. Fig.: That which pricks or annoys as a thorn; anything troublesome; trouble; care. [1913 Webster]
There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me. --2 Cor. xii. 7. [1913 Webster]
The guilt of empire, all its thorns and cares, Be only mine. --Southern. [1913 Webster]
4. The name of the Anglo-Saxon letter ?, capital form ?. It was used to represent both of the sounds of English th, as in thin, then. So called because it was the initial letter of thorn, a spine. [1913 Webster]
Thorn apple (Bot.), Jamestown weed.
Thorn broom (Bot.), a shrub that produces thorns.
Thorn hedge, a hedge of thorn-bearing trees or bushes.
Thorn devil. (Zool.) See Moloch, 2.
Thorn hopper (Zool.), a tree hopper (Thelia crataegi) which lives on the thorn bush, apple tree, and allied trees. [1913 Webster]

Thorn
Heb. hedek (Prov. 15:19), rendered "brier" in Micah 7:4. Some thorny plant, of the Solanum family, suitable for hedges. This is probably the so-called "apple of Sodom," which grows very abundantly in the Jordan valley. "It is a shrubby plant, from 3 to 5 feet high, with very branching stems, thickly clad with spines, like those of the English brier, with leaves very large and woolly on the under side, and thorny on the midriff."
Heb. kotz (Gen. 3:18; Hos. 10:8), rendered _akantha_ by the LXX. In the New Testament this word _akantha_ is also rendered "thorns" (Matt. 7:16; 13:7; Heb. 6:8). The word seems to denote any thorny or prickly plant (Jer. 12:13). It has been identified with the Ononis spinosa by some.
Heb. na'atzutz (Isa. 7:19; 55:13). This word has been interpreted as denoting the Zizyphus spina Christi, or the jujube-tree. It is supposed by some that the crown of thorns placed in wanton cruelty by the Roman soldiers on our Saviour's brow before his crucifixion was plaited of branches of this tree. It overruns a great part of the Jordan valley. It is sometimes called the lotus-tree. "The thorns are long and sharp and recurved, and often create a festering wound." It often grows to a great size. (See CROWN OF THORNS.)
Heb. atad (Ps. 58:9) is rendered in the LXX. and Vulgate by Rhamnus, or Lycium Europoeum, a thorny shrub, which is common all over Palestine. From its resemblance to the box it is frequently called the box-thorn.